====Part 4
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LETTERS FROM ALL OVER
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
6) NEW DW CONVENTION PLANNED FOR U.S.
7) VIMES: BORN TO BE KING?
8) MORE ABOUT HNIFLNIFLWHIFLBAFLSNIFLTAFL
9) AND ANOTHER CON IN 2007!
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====Part 1

1) THREE WEEKENDS WITH TERRY PRATCHETT
by Rentawitch

I am a lucky girl -- I got to spend 3 weekends very close
together at events where Terry Pratchett was either guest
of honour or at least a participant.

The three weekends in question were the Clarecraft
Discworld Event 2005 at Woolpit in Suffolk 29-31st July 2005,
Interaction in Glasgow the 63rd World Science Fiction
Convention, 4-8 August 2005 and Wadfest at Church
Laneham in Nottinghamshire, 2-4 September 2005.

Clarecraft is a camping event and the weather was mostly
good. Terry did a talk where he spoke about upcoming books
including Thud and the next Tiffany Aching book, Wintersmith
and revealed that the next 'adult' Discworld book might very
well investigate the phenomenon of football and its fandom.
It is rumoured the working title is 'Unseen Academicals'.

Some of you might be aware of a small storm in a teacup
surrounding a letter by Terry to the Sunday Times querying
how Miss Joanna K Rowling could say she did 'not know she
was writing fantasy' when she wrote the Harry Potter stories.

A generally good time was had by all and it was sad to hear
within a couple of days that Clarecraft is closing down. The
end of an era. If you have any Clarecraft pieces, look after them!!

Having got home on Sunday, worked (exhausted) through
Monday and Tuesday, it was off to Penrith on Tuesday night
on the train to meet good friends with whom I traveled up to
Interaction in Glasgow on Wednesday morning.

There were early sightings of the lesser spotted Pratchett
and an eager perusal of the programme revealed Terry's
participation in no fewer than 9, count them 9 programme items.

These were in chronological order:

Terry reading on the Floor ( for the younger participants)

Reading his 'favourite' book

Translation - Controlling the text - How do we select a
text for translation? What are the technical issues when
translating SF? What is lost? Are some texts inappropriate
for translation? Does translation intensify or dilute artifacts
of the originating culture?

The cult of personality - Panel with TP, Anne McCaffrey
and Terry Brooks - So what do you do when your autograph
line goes twice round the block?

I attended this one. Anne McCaffrey invited us to telephone
and go to tea if we were in Ireland, Terry Brooks threatened
to shoot any fans who went near his house (we think he was
joking) - and Terry revealed that he has his 'village mafia'
trained to misdirect-direct all fans.

Reading - Terry Pratchett. Terry read from Thud and his
PA Rob who had traveled up on a plane specially was just
too late to give him time to read from Wintersmith. We had
coffee with Rob after the session though with his lovely
partner and son, so for us at least, his journey was not
wasted.

It's Ok, it's lurve - Sex in Children's and Young Adult books -
Is it OK? How to justify it? When and why we cringe. A panel
with Ben Jeapes, Oisin McGann, Janet McNaughton, Sharyn
November and Terry. - I could not get to this one!

Lost and Found - Children's books we miss - A chance to
rediscover all those life-shaping children's books that you
and everyone else, publishers included, had forgotten up until
now. Panel with Greer Gilman, Janet McNaughton, Terry Pratchett
and Francis Spufford. - This was fun but quickly became a 'do you
remember' fest with appropriate groans and cheers of approbation.
- I found out there were two sequels to Heidi, which I have since
tracked down and read!!

Subverted Elves, Hard Assed Fairies with Attitude and Dragons
Taking Tea - Are sweet princesses, pretty little faeries and vicious
dragons not relevant to modern society or did we just get bored of them?

What do the new fantasists have to offer? Is there any resonance
with fantasy before the 18th and 19th century sanitised Faerie? -
Panel with P C Hodgell, Juliet E McKenna, Jo Walton and
Terry Pratchett. Who could resist a programme item so titled?
But it disappointed - there was no real spark between the panelists.
All I can recall is that it was generally agreed that sweet little
Victorian flower fairies are not representative of fairy stories,
cue the Nac Mac Feegle. I am ashamed to admit I left this item
early (and went to lunch!)

When I were a Lad, we used to dream of 64 K.
Techno-nostalgia is increasingly popular. In these days
of PDAs, and gigahertz processors, why do so many of us
have fond memories of the Good Old Days? - Panel with Simon Bisson,
Simon Bradshaw, John Dowd, Terry Pratchett and Francis Spufford.
This was another item that clashed with something else. I would
have liked to attend but Worldcon is like that. You have to make
radical decisions.

Finally, but not least Terry did a signing, where his queue was
as long or longer than anyone's.

You could also see him throughout the weekend around the halls
and in the bar. He stopped to share the news about Clarecraft
with me one evening in the bar and the people I was with were
sooo impressed that he stopped to talk. I explained how much
time Terry always has to share with fans and after all, he also
attends Worldcon for himself.

He was seen to be extremely amused when a certain Adrian
Emery did a spoof of the Monty Python sketch about writing a
book, changing it to refer to Terry writing Thud.

'And the first word is - yes it is The. This is the eighth book which
starts with 'The.' Four others have started with 'A' - all this delivered
as he sat sat at a desk in the HAT and famous beard, much to
the delight of the huge audience.

And on the last evening, at the Dead Dog party, we were speculating
that Terry must have long since gone home - when he suddenly was
spotted with a red bhindi mark on his forehead, drink in hand, still
wandering around talking to people.

Other famous authors at Worldcon this year included Scott
Edelman, Simon R Green, Robert Silverberg, Terry Brooks,
Anne McCaffrey, Robin Hobbs, Ellen Kushner, Christopher
Priest, Joe Haldeman, - this is nowhere near the complete
list but just gives a flavor of the variety one might expect at
a Worldcon. With or without Terry, it was enormous fun. But
apparently, he nearly always attends and any such gathering
can only be enhanced by him being there.

Lastly, he spotted me in long flowing gown, hair and cloak
getting some money from a cash machine prior to another
foray into the dealers room to spend even more money on books!!

'It's not often you see a fantasy princess using an ATM machine',
Terry commented. 'You couldn't have them in Ankh-Morpork though....
Unless the trolls were running them'. He started stroking his beard
and his voice trailed away and he wandered off, apparently deep in
thought! Look out for the first ATM in Treacle Mine Road!!

And then!! Less than a month later at Wadfest, Terry was there again!
Playing live Thud with a pudding basin tied onto the top of the famous
hat, signifying him as a troll. And watching the luggage wars and
taking part in the definitive bacon sandwich test. Should it be HP or
Daddies sauce?

All in all with these three weekends (and in spite of all the ATM visits),
I do believe I can JUST last until the Thud signing at the Forbidden
Planet in London in October, Witchfest International in Croydon in
November and Hogswatch in Wincanton in December.

Stalking the man, what DO you mean? Stalking the poor man - never!!
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

2) TERRY'S NEW WRITING PROJECTS

Your humble Editor asked Terry what he's working on
these days, and Terry replied:

After Wintersmith, well in progress, the proposed titles are Unseen
Academicals (the inevitable DW soccer book) and Scouting for Trolls,
still being considered...

Colin Smythe, his agent added, "Terry is presently on tour in the
States so it's great to learn that while he's there THUD has reached
No.4 on the New York Times Bestseller list for the week ending
17 September (though this fact won't be published till their issue of
2 October, for some reason). It's the first time that any of his novels
have been in their top 15 - those that the Times actually list in each
issue."

Colin also reports that Terry will be signing in
the UK and Ireland very shortly on:

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If you did not get all 4 parts, write: jschaum111@...
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End of Part 1, says my computer -- continued on Part 2 of 4

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